Center Street Bridge in 1974, subsequently removed
The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company was incorporated on March 7, 1832, to build a line from Jersey City, New Jersey, to New Brunswick, New Jersey.[1] The line opened between Jersey City and Newark, New Jersey, on September 15, 1834. This initial segment crossed two rivers: the Hackensack River, and the Passaic River in Newark.[2] The railroad had planned to cross the Passaic at Market Street, near the commercial dock, but objections from shipping interests forced the railroad to cross at Centre Street, some 2,000 feet (610m) upriver. This relocation meant that trains passing over the line had to make a sharp turn in Newark, and then again in Harrison, New Jersey, after crossing.[3]
The New Jersey Legislature authorized the construction of a bridge over the Passaic at Market Street in 1855, but subsequent litigation held up the start of construction until 1862.[4] The new bridge opened in 1869, and the main line of the New Jersey Railroad was re-routed, avoiding the curves of the original route.[5] The original route in Newark and Harrison, approximately 1.34 miles (2.16km) long, was retained as the Center Street Branch.[6]
The Pennsylvania Railroad continued to maintain a freight station on River Street in Newark, immediately west of the new main line and the Market Street passenger station.[9] The elevation of the main line through Newark in 1904 eliminated the connection on the western end.[10] The Center Street Bridge over the Passaic was rebuilt as a double-deck bridge in 1911 to accommodate the electric rapid transit trains of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (now PATH), which traveled over an elevated right-of-way from Manhattan Transfer to Park Place station, a block southwest of the Center Street Branch tracks.[11][12][5] The new Pennsylvania Station in Newark opened in 1935, replacing Market Street station, and the Hudson and Manhattan moved its Newark terminus there in 1937 with the closure of Manhattan Transfer.[13] The upper span was rebuilt to handle road traffic and for a time was designated as New Jersey Route 158.
Prior to 1976, service over the bridge was abandoned leaving the track in Harrison as the remainder of the line. This was conveyed to Conrail in 1976, following the Penn Central Transportation bankruptcy.[8] The Center Street Branch remained part of Conrail Shared Assets Operations after the 1999 Conrail split.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
